


Fathers and Son

by SullustanGin



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Diners, Discussion, Gen, Pre-Star Wars: The Old Republic - Knights of the Fallen Empire, The Carbonite Years (SWTOR)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:08:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24845071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SullustanGin/pseuds/SullustanGin
Summary: After Theron Shan leaves SIS and the Republic behind, Jace Malcom and Marcus Trant meet to discuss his decision.This occurs during the five years in carbonite for the Outlander.
Kudos: 23





	Fathers and Son

**Author's Note:**

> This story fits my Corellian Whiskey and Sullustan Gin series, but it can stand alone.

He hadn’t seen him in person in years. They corresponded, but face-to-face was optional in this technologically-inclined galaxy. Still, Jace Malcom knew the slim, effortlessly cool man that waited for him. Likewise, Marcus Trant knew the hulking warrior that dropped himself onto the booth seat across from him. 

Jace Malcom had undergone a heart procedure a few years back, but he was no worse-for-wear. He could still benchpress a speeder, and he still ran regularly. Eating at a greasy galactic diner like this was a year’s worth of cheat days for him, but the man deserved a meal like this. 

Theron was gone.

Theron had given up his career, less than three years short of his 20 years of service in SIS. He could have gotten a pension. He could have retired.

He gave it up to rescue her.

Theron had told Jace what he was doing less than a day before he did it. Once Theron had erased all evidence of himself on Coruscant and gone off the grid, the SIS Director had reached out to Jace. This is why they were here in this diner.

Jace was dismayed to find out that Trant wasn’t willing to conveniently lose the resignation or just put Theron on leave – stars knew the man had months upon months of unused leave that he could burn through. No, Trant wanted to talk about Theron and his decision, and his decision alone. Apparently, Trant “understood.”

It wasn’t the first time that Jace felt envy toward Trant.

** 

When Jace found out Theron had existed, he kept his cool (well, relatively kept his cool) until Theron and Gnost-Dural were back in the Republic, dehydrated and underdressed but safe. 

Swoop racing had been their first break through after the Ascendant Spear. At a coffee shop meet-up, Jace had brought holostills of himself from before Alderaan. He wanted to show Theron there had once been a family resemblance, before he’d gotten his half his face blown off. Theron had actually dropped his guard when Jace said that. Jace knew he had once been good-looking and maybe he still was, in the right light. One of the pictures was Jace with his swoop, Tanya. Yes, he had named his swoop. Theron had laughed; it wasn’t his thing, but he knew other guys who did it. They shared records, compared injuries from the track, and talked a bit of shop. 

It was the best feeling in the world for Jace when they got chased from the coffee shop because it was closing. They’d talked so much and lost track of time – it was euphoric.

Theron didn’t talk to Jace for a few months after that, beyond a few PubSec-related holo messages. That’s when Jace had gone digging for information about Theron without asking him and got irrationally jealous of Trant.

That’s also when Jace started reading about avoidance and attachments and fear. 

Jace went on an information binge, pulling up all of the official and unofficial records on Theron he could. Jace spent all of his free time for weeks learning about his wary, hot-tempered, sharp-minded son, even as he awaited a holo call back.

Jace knew his fervent research would never compare to the years that Trant had overseen Theron’s career, from the age of 16. For example, Jace read that Theron had a bad reaction to the anesthesia used to install his implants when he was 18. The recovery from a complete neural remapping was never pleasant anyway, but this made it exponentially more dangerous and downright torturous. 

Theron convalesced at an address that matched Trant’s sprawling apartment that the Director shared with his second wife and kids, and it appeared that the wife logged Theron’s pain medicine and antibiotic regime. Jace imagined that Trant would have seen him every day after work, asked him how he was, and maybe brought in the swoop racing standings from the Holonews stand.

That imagined interaction ate at Jace for three days because Jace, just like Theron, had been a swoop racer in his youth, and a damn good one. He couldn’t look at his intel because of a theoretical missed opportunity to talk about swoop racing – if he’d only known. It was as if he’d imagined an argument and burned himself thoroughly in the process – completely irrational but Jace was human. Jace wondered what could have been if only...

Theron’s list of injuries from years in SIS was fairly impressive, though nothing ever as devastating as Jace’s own injuries. Theron only ended up at Trant’s place once after, and that was after his right arm was nearly severed. He was unconscious and couldn’t argue. Most of the time, Theron went to get medical care and signed himself out to privately heal in his apartment, despite doctor’s advice. Miraculously, he’d never had a relapse or an infection while on his own reconnaissance, despite his inability to fully rest and recuperate. 

Theron sold his apartment when he left SIS. He was gone. 

Their last argument made Jace ache: his anger wasn’t even full-hearted. Yes, there was corruption and Madon. Jace saw it too. Yes, Theron was angry about that and about how the Republic had gone down without a fight. So was Jace. But then the conversation took a turn, and Jace realized Theron was his son; just like his father, he was a fool in love. He loved someone he couldn’t have. At least Jace’s object of affection had been alive. Theron’s object of obsession wasn’t, no matter how much he insisted that she was just in carbonite, only sleeping. 

And then he had done a crazy, impulsive, foolish thing.

And now Trant wanted to talk to Jace about his son. 

(The antecedents were deliberated foggy.)

**

Jace ordered the biggest, nastiest thing on the breakfast menu, one suggested for couples the morning after, around 1 pm, to be shared. Hashbrowns, eggs, bacon, sausage, grits, toast, sautéed mushrooms – the list went on.

Trant raised an eyebrow at Jace as he tucked into an egg white omelet with whole wheat toast and black caf, Tangerieran avocado on the side. “Should you really be eating that?”

Jace gave him a surly look and went to work on his plate. “You invited me here to talk about him. So talk.”

Trant sipped his coffee. “You need to know that Theron still believes in the Republic and all she stands for. Let’s get that out of the way, first of all. Second, we’re all aware about the chancellor’s relationship with his predecessor. Those backchannels – not what the Republic stands for, in Theron’s mind.”

Jace chewed, swallowed, and then spoke. “He didn’t leave because his ideals were offended. He may say that, but …. What he’s left for is insanity. He shouldn’t be out there alone.”

Trant stared across table. “You want me to get him sectioned and reel him in?”

Jace met his gaze. “Quietly. I don’t want his career ruined. The job – one of three new assistant directors of SIS, working against the Sith Empire, and confirming the dead still from the Eternal Fleet incident – it must have been too much too soon. He’s just tired; force some R&R and a health check on him, he’ll straighten out. He’s served for so long, just like me. Just like Satele.” Jace wondered if this outburst was due to her absence, in part.

“No, I don’t think so.” Apparently, Jace had said that thought out loud. Trant moved his coffee from the right side of his plate to the left. “Just because he knew Satele better than he used to doesn’t mean they knew each other particularly well, even before she left. And no, I think he has full command of his faculties.” 

“That’s even worse.” Jace dug into his eggs, deep in thought. “I don’t understand. Theron…. Never. Of all the people I thought would screw up his career because of a skirt, he wasn’t it.”

Trant smirked. “You forgot Teff’ith.”

Jace shook his head. “You know what I mean by skirt. And that Twi’lek didn’t make him resign his career and go off the grid, planning to rescue her with some secret cabal, when we already know what happened to her.”

Trant began to address his avocado with a spoon. “You ever meet her?”

Jace shook his head. “Apparently not. I thought I did, once, but that was her double. The one time I asked him about his dating life while she was alive, after Yavin, he refused to talk about it. ‘We’re not doing that’ was what he said. I thought he meant it was none of my business. Now I wonder.”

Trant swallowed the piece of avocado he had scooped. “Wonder away.”

Jace went to work on his plate. The men ate in silence for an indeterminate number of minutes. The waitress came by to refill their caf twice. 

Trant spoke first and nearly killed Jace. “You know, I set them up as newlyweds in a casino once.” 

Jace gagged on a mouthful of mushrooms. Swallowing hard, he managed to growl out, “I know I’m a roughneck at heart, but please don’t make me headbutt you in a diner. What do you mean, newlyweds?!” That would be a vital piece of information that Theron shouldn’t have left out. 

Trant took some perverse joy in ticking off a man who could snap him in half. “It was an impromptu op I arranged while the three of us were coincidentally in the same place. Both of them were complete professionals, despite my best machinations. Solid friendship partly rooted in anger at me. They got together on their own terms later, I think. They sold it, though, and all three of us got off the planet safely.” 

Jace considered their ability to work together without being romantically entangled and then paired it with other images he’d seen. “Theron showed me some holos of her. She was pretty. He looked happy when he was with her.” 

Admittedly, Jace couldn’t help but smile when Theron had chattered while the images glowed. It was the most he’d ever heard out of his son when not talking about swoops or missions or Republic business; small talk was neither of their strong suits, so a girlfriend would have been _something_ to add to the list of topics.

If she had been alive. If the holos weren’t already macabre, as Theron spoke of her like she was only waiting for him. Jace’s smile had slowly turned to grimace of horror as he realized what his son was going to do in the name of a dead woman. Jace knew she was on the list of those missing, but only because she was legally blocked from being declared dead. Some Wookiee was fighting for her in the courts, of all things. 

Trant gave him a look across the table. “Theron, happy, while not working? Jace.”

His name was said with a quiet insistence, as if begging him to think about what that meant.

Jace frowned. “He made it sound as if he didn’t return her call in time, then she went to go rendezvous with…that Sith.” The Supreme Commander’s disgust was impossible to hide. 

Trant looked grim. “Please don’t tell me you got into that with him.”

There was a very visceral part of Jace that had wanted to tell Theron this woman had gotten what she’d deserved by working with a member of the Dark Council. However, even through his rage, Jace knew that would have gone beyond spiking the cannon on the relationship. 

Jace shook his head. “I held my tongue. You know he was already seeing a counselor, for everything and the grief? Maybe we could use that –”

Trant set down his cutlery with a loud clank. “Jace. No.” Trant took a long swallow of his caf. “Did he ever discuss the Ziost incident?”

Now it was Jace’s turn to look grim. “Only in an official capacity. I didn’t dare ask beyond. Satele was furious, and when she came _to me_ in private to vent – I knew I didn’t need to stick my foot in that from both ends on a personal level.” 

Trant appeared reticent. “This is classified and I’ve thrown my cloak over it, but _she_ was there. The whole time. She wasn’t being paid by SIS or by anyone. She kept her mouth shut after, without any payment.”

Jace blinked. “She’s a smuggler. That doesn’t make sense; that’s the only angle they have.”

Trant continued, looking profoundly guilty, as if he was divulging the great secrets of the Republic. “From that point forward, Theron spent all of his time trying to get back into the good graces of SIS, the chancellor, and the Jedi – Satele included. Until the Eternal Fleet.

Jace started to chase the mushrooms around his plate with a fork. “As well he should have. He screwed up.”

Trant closed his eyes for a moment before continuing. “Yes. It was bad. Imagine how much worse it would have been if he’d been utterly alone.”

Jace wasn’t an intel guy, but he was able to add things up. “I’m going to guess that he avoided associating with the smuggler while trying to be repentant and on his best behavior.” Then the bell rang. “Until Eternal Fleet.”

Jace wanted to facepalm, but he was self-aware enough to know that stabbing himself in the eye with a fork would not be socially acceptable in a restaurant. He controlled his impulse on that one. “Marcus, are you sure? The credits weren’t coming anymore. She could have just left –”

“Jace, do you know how seriously underpaid she was for all the things she did? It was criminal, and that’s coming from the Director SIS. She took a flat retainer through Yavin. Then she came to Ziost for nothing. Well, technically for one thing. It wasn’t about the credits.” 

Trant stabbed at the last of his avocado with his spoon. “I will say that the Chancellor tried to pay her to be her stooge, to watch Theron, but she sent back the credits with a nice little virus attached. It changed all the screensavers in the Chancellor’s office to Bothan holo smut.” Trant let dark smirk cross his face, and Jace had to admit, while sophomoric, it was an effective way of sticking it to the man. Or Twi, in this case. 

Jace sat in the booth in the diner, thinking about Theron and the girl. “Why her? Of all the women in the galaxy?”

Marcus Trant finished off his avocado and munched on his toast for a few minutes before replying. “She was reliable.”

Jace shoveled the remains of his eggs into his mouth and consumed them before responding. “But she was also high-risk. A criminal. Forbidden. Dangerous. Of course, he liked that.” 

Trant had an uncharacteristically regretful look on his face. Given everything he’d done and ordered as Director of SIS, it was strange how this affected him. 

Jace tilted his head. “Out with it. I’m already having a rough enough week without you making wistful glances at me while thinking about my son’s love life.” 

Trant shifted in his seat. “As much as Theron liked his chaos and adventure, there was…part of him that wanted…something to depend on, something to fall back on. Institutionally, that was SIS and the Republic, until we surrendered.” Jace cringed at the words, knowing they were accurate. “On a personal level…you and Satele were not it.”

That hurt. 

“Don’t even think of hitting me in here,” Trant grumbled back at Jace’s expression. “Anyway…”

Trant gazed at the waitress that passed by to fill up his caf again. Jace told her to hold off on his. 

Trant finally picked up the conversation. “You know that Theron was at the Corellian Military Academy before SIS recruited him.”

Jace gave a curt nod. “When Master Zho gave up custody and went to infiltrate the Empire.”

Trant dropped the payload. “He didn’t tell Theron. He didn’t tell him that he was going or that Theron was as Force sensitive as you are. He just sent him to the enclave at Haashimut.” 

Jace was initially stunned, but that soon gave way to an anger that he thought had been accepted and reconciled. “I would have –”

Trant waved his hand at Jace. “Zho never knew about you. Satele didn’t know what the old man had done until she got a message from the enclave itself, and she was sort of in the middle of becoming Grand Master at the time, rediscovering Tython and all.” Trant took a sip of his caf. “There was a scramble to find Theron a place, get temporary custody arrangements, sort out what was going to happen to him. It was messy, to say the least.” 

“He was only 13---” Jace bottled his anger as he stared intently at Trant, waiting for him to continue.

“When Zho reappeared ten years later, one thing stuck with me. This was the man who raised Theron. This was the man he called ‘father’ because he knew nobody else otherwise. You know what he described him as?”

Jace waited.

“‘Never reliable.’ ‘Even at his best, Zho was never reliable.’” Trant looked down at his empty plate for nearly a minute. Then he finally spoke.

“Jace, I’m a screw up. I’ve gone through three wives. I hope the fourth will outlive me at this point, because I think another divorce settlement will leave me without a pension.” Trant met Jace’s intent stare. “I’m a horrible husband. But I’m a father of two, though, and I’ll be damned if they couldn’t rely on me to do right by them.” 

It was a grievous condemnation of Zho. Theron had said it. Jace pursed his lips as he spun his caf mug in a circle, the now-cool liquid sloshing.

Trant finished his caf. “From the Korriban raid to Eternal Fleet, he relied on her for almost a year and a half.”

Jace blinked. “Never broke trust, as far as you know?”

“Never. Damn impressive as a smuggler. I wanted him to recruit her, but that was a pipe dream from the jump. She only was loyal to herself and her people.” Trant left something unsaid in that sentence, and Jace picked up on it. 

The Supreme Commander frowned. “Zho was not reliable. He couldn’t rely on Satele as his mother – she made her choice. He can’t rely on me – we’re more like friends than father and son. I—I….” Jace needed to be honest with himself. “I don’t know if I can forgive him for leaving the Republic like this. What about you, though?” 

Trant shook his head. “Theron is well-aware of my human flaws. I also make ugly decisions, approve uglier ops, and use people for the Republic’s good. Including him. And her. He would be a fool and a poor agent if he ever relied on a man like me.”

The heavy weight fell down on Jace’s shoulders. “He said he sent her away. From what you’ve said, the one person he could rely on, recently. Then the Eternal Fleet, the treaty...” Jace felt his face pull into a frustrated snarl as he connected all the dots. “She did it for him, not for the credits or for the Republic or SIS or anything else. Just _Theron_.” Jace pushed his plate away, pushed his cold caf away, and folded his hands in front of him on the table. “And he finally…” Jace let the sentence fade into silence. 

Trant joined him in the contemplative vigil at the table. Then the SIS Director turned his gaze on Jace from his perch opposite. “I’ve never known Theron to have illusions or high hopes for relationships.”

Jace closed his eyes. “No, that’s more my department.” He reopened them slowly. 

Theron was gone. Regardless of how his rescue mission went, he wouldn’t be the same when Jace saw him again. 

Jace hoped his son wouldn’t grow up to be like him. 

So did Trant.

**Author's Note:**

> I've seen a lot of discussion about Theron's issues with his mother, but even though it emotionally hurts, he sees the logic in it and can accept it. It's not easy He can also understand and accept Malcom's reactions and decisions. It's for the Greater Good (Republic, Jedi, the free galaxy as we know it, etc.) .
> 
> I don't think we ever see in canon Master Zho ever giving Theron a heads up about anything that happened surrounding his departure, Theron's lack of the Force, or the Treaty of Coruscant -- not in the Lost Suns comic, anyway. I'm playing around with the idea that maybe Satele isn't the source of Theron's attachment issues -- rather, it's Zho. Zho knew Theron better than Satele or Jace did as a child, and then he still decided to leave him at age 13. It's one thing to make a decision without getting to know the child or never have the option. It's another to raise a kid for 13 years and leave with no forwarding address.


End file.
